Amy Rees Anderson

Tag Archives for negative

“Optimist: Someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s more like a cha-cha.” That may just be one of my favorite quotes I have heard in a while. Maybe because it incorporates being optimistic and dancing, and everyone who knows me knows how much my […]

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.” – C.S. Lewis So true! One would think that it becomes easier to make new friends as you become an adult because at that stage in life you are more comfortable in your own […]

I still remember as a child seeing my mother standing in the kitchen talking to herself. No joke. She would literally have entire conversations with herself. At the time I just assumed my Mom must be a little bit crazy, after all the woman had ten children so by rights she was entitled to be […]

Happy New Year everyone! The start of a brand new year – it is so exciting! 2015!!! Don’t get me wrong, 2014 was a major year for my family that was full of big time milestones. We finished building our new house and our new houseboat, we moved into our new home, my daughter Ashley […]

There are just three short days until we celebrate Christmas! This weekend was fantastic. Our kids came home from college and we went to an awesome Christmas concert by pianist Kurt Bestor. During the concert he brought out a children’s choir and one little girl sang the famous song “Let it Go” from the Disney […]

My message today is a short one, but an important one. If you wake up every morning feeling stuck in a life that isn’t happy you have one of two choices – you can either change your circumstances or change your attitude! Because sitting around miserable all the time should not be allowed to exist […]

No doubt that the contents of this post may in fact lead you to cry. It certainly made me cry! I was watching the news a few days ago when I heard them announce that Garth Brooks was going to be performing on the show that morning. I was so excited when I heard that […]

Life is short but apparently it can become a lot shorter if you spend your days dealing with a bad boss. In a recent study performed by Keas.com they found that 77% of employees experienced physical symptoms of stress from bad bosses and workers who had inconsiderate or uncommunicative managers were 60% more likely to suffer […]

“Sometimes the best thing you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess. Just breathe, and have faith that everything will work out for the best.” Anticipation is a funny thing. On the one hand it is exciting and fun, like anticipating Santa Claus arrival on Christmas. On the other hand it […]

Fear of failure is said to be the greatest barrier to one’s success, which makes total sense given that our fear of failure is what stops us from making attempts in the first place. Yet, can anyone blame us for fearing failure? Just think about it, from the first moment we are born we begin […]

“Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their minds called, “All the Things That Could Go Wrong.” – Marianne Williamson That is SO TRUE! You don’t see little kids worried about what could go wrong! They are far too busy being focused on what they plan to accomplish. Kids create, they get […]

When my son Dalton was a little boy, for some reason he could not grow bangs. His hair would grow on top and on the sides and in the back, but not in the front. For the first few years of his life I kept him in little baseball caps to disguise the fact that […]

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” – Harry Truman Pessimism: Pessimism is defined as a state of mind in which one perceives life negatively. It is always expecting the worst possible outcome. It is living with a lack of faith. […]

When my children were young I used to teach them the principle of filling up their gas tanks – our bodies and minds are like a car that is always running. In order to run we need gas in our tank. Even when the car is in idle and not driving forward it needs gas […]

“Think the best of each other, especially of those you say you love. Assume the good and doubt the bad.” -Jeffrey R. Holland So many times in life we hear something, or read something, or receive bits and pieces of information that leave room for interpretation of a situation or another person. And the instant […]

A few days ago I posted a blog about a young girl who was being bullied. Then today my son sent me the link to a video and he asked me to watch it – he said it is a video that would change people’s lives because it hits the viewer in such a powerful […]

Growing up in a family of ten kids led to some awesome memories. One memory in particular that I thought about today was the following story: We were sitting around our massive dinner table (it took a huge table to hold all 12 of us!). We were preparing to sing Happy Birthday to one of the […]

Today I was feeling the stress of the holiday creep in and I decided that I needed an action list of things I could do to help take the stress off during this holiday season. Here is the list of ideas I came up with to help all of us cope with holiday stress: Make […]

Several years ago my family and I were down visiting the small town of Bicknell, Utah with our dear friends. We went to a church meeting down in Bicknell back then and a very humble young man got up and gave a talk on perspective and gratitude that was awesome. In his talk he shared […]

“It’s just a bad day, not a bad life.” Some days are just blah days. Nothing great, but nothing bad either…just blah. That was how today was. It seems like when the weather gets cold the blah days come with it…unfortunately. So today I decided to gather ideas on how to best handle a blah […]

Hug O’ War I will not play at tug o’ war. I’d rather play at hug o’ war, Where everyone hugs Instead of tugs, Where everyone giggles And rolls on the rug, Where everyone kisses, And everyone grins, And everyone cuddles, And everyone wins. – Shel Silverstein When someone tries to pick a fight with […]

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it.” -Victor Hugo Do you remember back to when you were a kid? When you blew out the birthday candles to make a wish with the belief that it would actually come true? Or when you pinned a towel to your shoulders and played […]

As a business leader, one of the many lessons I learned was that employees often viewed the world around them in ways that were completely different from what was actually going on. I observed time and time again employees who interpreted something one way when the reality was actually totally different. I learned that when […]

Words are a powerful thing. Words can build and lift, comfort and calm, teach and inspire. To the opposite, words can destroy and demolish, incite and enrage, berate and criticize, embarrass and demean. It has been said that in an average day a person will speak somewhere between 10 and 20,000 words. Which means we […]

One of the questions I am asked the most is, “How do you do it? How do you balance work life and home life?” The honest answer is, “I don’t.” I don`t do it all. No one can. For years I battled the guilt of not being able to do it all, especially during the […]

Recently, I had the occasion to observe a group of employees who were working in a toxic work environment. I witnessed the decline of self-esteem in each one of them as they endured month after month of poor leadership and dysfunction in their workplace. I was truly amazed at the change to the countenance of […]

“I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” -Martha Washington I very much believe that statement to be true. Our attitude about things is such a major determination of our happiness level in life. And we control our attitude by controlling […]

Today I attended a roundtable with Speaker of the House John Boehner, Senator Hatch, Candidate Mia Love, and several other key politicians. It was a great discussion and I enjoyed being a part of it. As we draw closer and closer to the upcoming elections I am completely floored and frankly disgusted by the number […]